The Palestinian Minister of Labor, Inas Al-Attari, confirmed that the local labor market is experiencing a severe economic shock as a result of continuous Israeli policies, with the number of unemployed rising to nearly half a million Palestinians. Al-Attari explained that this figure reflects unprecedented conditions experienced by workers, noting that the integrated system of restrictions begins with military checkpoints and extends to the complete loss of basic sources of income.
The Minister stated that the Palestinian economy has lost approximately 200,000 job opportunities for workers who used to go to their workplaces inside the Green Line since October 2023, joining more than 300,000 unemployed individuals already registered in the local market. She considered that the military checkpoints spread across the West Bank are no longer just tools to restrict movement, but have become a means to isolate cities and towns and reshape the economic reality to serve the interests of the occupation and hinder the flow of goods.
In the context of the financial crisis, Al-Attari stressed that the continued deduction of clearance funds by the occupation authorities or delaying their transfer represents suffocating pressure on both the government and the private sector. This financial tightening has directly led to a decline in cash liquidity, causing many development projects to stall and forcing establishments to lay off additional numbers of workers, emphasizing that the national economy cannot operate productively under these abnormal circumstances.
Regarding government interventions, the Minister referred to the launch of the 'Bader' program, which provides interest-free loans up to 60,000 shekels to support small projects, with 767 projects benefiting in the first phase. Despite these initiatives, which include free health insurance and temporary employment programs, Al-Attari affirmed that these solutions remain limited in their impact compared to the overall scale of the crisis, stressing that the core of the problem lies in the imposed political reality.
On the digital solutions front, Al-Attari pointed to the 'Job Match' platform, launched in December 2025, which uses artificial intelligence technologies to match the skills of approximately 590,000 job seekers with the needs of 42,000 establishments. She added that the Ministry is coordinating with countries such as Qatar, Turkey, and Jordan to provide remote work opportunities, with the aim of retaining Palestinian competencies within the homeland and preventing their emigration, while continuously striving to activate the role of the International Labor Organization to hold the occupation accountable for its violations against workers.
We are facing an unprecedented number of unemployed compared to the size of the Palestinian economy, and the occupation is reshaping the economic geography through checkpoints.
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Minister of Labor: Half a Million Unemployed in Palestine Due to Israeli Restrictions